Monday, November 5, 2007

This week is Gretchen's first dig with the Museum, and she says learning to find fossils is "like downloading something into a computer. You have to get your 'search image' set, so you know what you're looking for. At first, it's impossible to distinguish the fossils from the plain old rocks, but then all of the sudden it's like 'There's one!' and 'There's one!' and 'There's one!'"

As a child, Gretchen was inspired by her father's "rock hound" best friend. She became an enthusiastic California camper and rock lover - she even started her high school's geology club.

She turned that enthusiasm into a Master's degree in geology, and she worked at ExxonMobil for 13 years. After raising her family, she started volunteering at the Houston Museum of Natural Science as a way to get back into geology. That was over six years ago. Since, she's become an integral part of the volunteer team, leading student tours of the exhibit halls, teacher workshops, and tours of the Wiess Energy Hall and special exhibitions, including Lucy's Legacy; being a "Docent to Go;" and manning the touch carts that allow visitors to get "hands-on" with the Museum's exhibitions.

"Digging is like getting back to your roots. I like looking at the details - the small picture, layer by layer. And it's geology - so it's cool."

About

If you're interested in more general science updates, please visit the Museum's new blog.
For about a year, the Museum has been sending a team of paleontologists and volunteers to Seymour, TX, a little town about 2 hours outside of the Dallas/Fort Worth area that happens to be the world's best site to find Dimetrodon - the biggest, baddest, pre-dinosaur predator.
Led by famous paleontologist Dr. Bob Bakker, the team uses a "CSI" approach - picking out every bit of fossilized evidence they can find, from teeth to tiny bone fragments - in the quest to discover exactly what creatures died here 290 million years ago - and more importantly, how they lived.
While they're in the field, you can follow their exploits here. They'll be posting daily with pictures and information about what they have found and what it all means. You can explore more about the species they are finding and the answers they are looking for at the links below.
They would love to answer your questions - so come back, and post often.

***Note

The team has now returned from Seymour, and though we will be posting relevant updates as they occur, daily discoveries are on hold until they return to the field. Please feel free to explore the links below to learn all about what they've found - and leave us a question or comment to let the team know what you think.